When the Father Returns
by Ms. Murphy
Summary: Ryan is finally settling into his life in Newport, until his dad is released from prison and comes to find him.
1. A knock at the door

Looking back, Ryan thought he should have realized that things were going too well. He may live with the Cohens, but he was still an Atwood and that Atwood luck was still his. Since he had returned from his summer in Chino things had been going really well for him in Newport. Sure, Sandy and Kirsten were stressed out about Caleb's arrest and the appointment of Julie Cooper as the CEO of the Newport Group but Ryan was surprisingly not causing any additional stress for them. It was a strange contrast to last year when it seemed like every week he was involved in some bad situation or fight. He was beginning to feel like he belonged in Newport with the Cohens.

Last summer when he had been arrested for stealing that car with Trey, he was sure he was headed down the same path as his brother and father. As an Atwood, sooner or later he was going to end up in prison, and he thought it might as well be sooner. He was lucky that Sandy had been appointed his attorney, otherwise he would probably be in jail, and ever since last Thanksgiving when Trey asked him to jeopardize everything to help by fencing that stolen car, he had given up on his family. He had no idea where his mom was and refused to visit Trey in jail. While he was in Chino with Theresa, she would often visit her brother Arturo in jail, and he felt like shit for not caring about his brother the way Theresa cared about hers. But he knew that letting Trey back into his life, especially when Ryan was staring down the bleak future of being a high school dropout, could only result in disaster. While he was in Chino, he tried to avoid his old friends and the old ways, but it had been hard. He was glad to be back in Newport and away from the temptations of Chino.

So far the year was going great. His relationship with Marissa was strained, but he thought they were making progress on being friends and he was okay with that. He spent a lot of time listening to Seth talk about Summer and he was glad that he didn't have that type of all consuming relationship to worry about this year. After the whole Marissa drama last year with the overdosing, the Oliver thing, and the Theresa situation, only to come back and have her lying to him about the seeing the yard guy, he was glad to not be dating her. School was good, but hard. He was up for the challenge though, and was really enjoying Physics, due in part to his lab partner Lindsay. As much as he loved Seth, it was nice to hang out with someone who didn't spend a majority of their time obsessing over Summer. Plus, Lindsay came from a place like his own, which was kind of refreshing and she seemed drama free, which was a welcome change. Yeah, things were good, which obviously meant that trouble was around the corner; Ryan just wished he had seen it coming.

The Cohens were sitting around the table having dinner, Italian take-out, when the doorbell rang. Kirsten let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes at Sandy. "I'm sure that's the press, Julie had another awful client meeting today and we lost yet another client...at this rate in another month there won't be a Company for her to be the CEO of." Kirsten ranted.

Sandy leaned over and placed his hand on top of hers. "Not at the table, we agreed to not talk about Caleb's case or work while we were eating, remember? Plus Julie Cooper Nichol can't lose every client in a month, these a people who are used to doing business with an uniformed liar, they've been clients of your dad's for years." He smirked.

"I'll get it. It's probably Summer and Zach." Seth said, standing.

"Why would Summer be coming over with her new boyfriend?" Kirsten asked. Ryan shot Sandy a sideways glance, knowing that Kirsten hadn't been home enough lately to realize that Zach was Seth Version 2.0.

"Oh he wants to see how I bag and board my issues and my filing system for new comic books" Seth told her. "Summer told him I have a great system and he wanted to check it out."

Ryan gave a small chuckle as Sandy said "Wow, you sound really proud."

"I'll take what I can get with Summer right now, and if it means my comic book collection is better than Zach's then it's Seth 1, Zach 0".

"Yeah, except really I think Zach should get a point for having not sailed away from Summer leaving only a note." Ryan said.

Sandy and Kirsten laughed, as Sandy reached over and ruffled Ryan's hair.

"He hasn't sailed away from her _yet _and whose side are you on, anyway?" Seth muttered as he headed towards the door.

Seth opened the door and was surprised to see a disheveled looking man about the age of his dad standing there. "Um, hi." Seth said clearly confused.

"Ryan?" the man asked, returning Seth's confused look.

"Uh. No." Seth noticed that the man looked a little like Ryan around the eyes. He had a bad feeling about this. "Hang on" he instructed the man standing at the doorway, as he turned his head and called over his shoulder "Dad - come here quick!"

Sandy pushed himself back from the table and patted Kirsten's shoulder. "I'll handle this." He told her assuming that it was the press. He thought rather bitterly that Caleb had certainly made a mess of things for them; he couldn't even enjoy a nice dinner with his family.

"What's up, Seth?" Sandy asked as he entered the foyer, glancing curiously at the man standing at the door. He was shocked at how much the man resembled Ryan, especially around the eyes. There was no doubt who this man was, he thought with a sudden sinking feeling.

"Go back to the table Seth, and don't mention this to your mother." Sandy instructed giving Seth a look that he hoped conveyed not to mention it to Ryan either. Seth started to interrupt, but Sandy shushed him as he stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind him.


	2. A Chance Encounter

Disclaimer: I didn't say it in chapter one, but you know the drill – Not mine, property of Josh Schwartz and FOX -except any new characters - which are mine

Seth stood in the foyer trying to regain his composure. He knew that the man outside was Ryan's dad and that chances were good that his arrival was going to screw up everything. Seth couldn't imagine his life without Ryan, yet it seemed every few months something came along that threatened their relationship. Before Ryan showed up, his life had been hell. Granted things weren't that much better now, since he screwed up everything with Summer. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and walked back to the table.

"Was it the damn press again?" His mom asked, as she began clearing the table.

"Um. No. It was someone for Dad." Seth mumbled, meeting her curious glance he quickly added "Someone I didn't recognize."

Kirsten wiped her hands and headed towards the door "Well, maybe I'll peek out the window and see if I can figure it out who it is. You never know, it could be someone undercover trying to get information about the case or the state of the Newport Group or…" She floundered.

"No, Mom, I don't think it's about that." Seth said quickly, grabbing her arm. "You're like super stressed out. Why don't you go take a shower, or read or tweeze something? I don't know…Whatever it is ladies do to relax." He said as he guided her out of the kitchen.

"Seth, you're acting weird, what's going on?" Kirsten demanded.

Ryan was clearing the table and watching Seth's odd behavior with amusement. He realized that Kirsten was stressed and he remembered how much she seemed to enjoy playing video games with him last year. "Hey, Kirsten? How about a rematch on the Playstation?" He asked.

Kirsten turned and smiled at Ryan, "I'd like that Ryan. Ninja game?"

"You're on." Ryan said, heading into the living room.

"What?!" said asked incredulously. "When have you two been playing the Playstation?" He turned to his mother. "I was wondering why you bought the new GTA while I was in I was in Oregon." He paused and added "My mom plays video games…Cool." He followed them into the living room.

Meanwhile, outside, Sandy lead Ryan's dad down the driveway without saying anything. He glanced back at the house before he started to speak. "Mr. Atwood, I'm Sandy Cohen, Ryan's guardian and attorney." He stated.

"Oh man. I didn't know you were a lawyer too." Ryan's dad said, rubbing his chin. "I guess you're the reason Ryan's not in Juvie or County like his brother." He stopped, and looked at the house for a moment. "He's definitely better off here. Thank you." He extended his hand to Sandy.

Sandy didn't trust this man, and was wary of how he had found Ryan, but he shook the man's extended hand anyway. "You're welcome, but it's not me you should be thanking. Ryan's a great kid."

"Not like I had anything to do with it." Ryan's dad replied glancing at his feet. "I've been in jail for a majority of the kid's life and even when I was around I wasn't really there if you know what I mean." He said shyly.

Sandy was again struck by how much like Ryan he looked. Especially his expressive eyes. "Mr. Atwood"-

"Jason."

"Okay, Jason, can I ask why you're here?" Realizing that sounded rude, of course Ryan's dad had a reason to visit his son; Sandy tried to rephrase his question. "I mean, when or um why…"

"It's okay Mr. Cohen, I'm sorry to just show up here. It's just that my parole came up and I headed back to Chino only to find that Dawn was gone. Not like I expected her to wait, especially since she hasn't been by to see me in years, but don't they say that your family has to take you back no matter what? You know, Trey and Ryan would come sometimes to see me sometimes, but then I heard that Trey was busted for stealing a car and now he's in County. I didn't know until I got out that Ryan was involved. And then the word on the street was that Dawn moved away without telling Ryan. Anyway, I was in a bar the other night and talking to some guys about maybe getting a construction job, when I told them my name, they asked if I was related to Ryan. They had nothing but great things to say about the kid. Made me proud, even if I didn't have nothing to do with his growing up, it's not everyday that people say nice things about an Atwood." He stopped glancing around "Mind if I smoke?" He asked Sandy, as he placed the cigarette in his mouth and lit it. "They told me that Ryan left Chino a few months ago and came back to Newport. One guy said something about your wife working for the Newport Group and you know with all the press they've been getting it wasn't too hard to find out where he was."

As distrustful as Sandy felt about Ryan's dad showing up out of the blue he couldn't help feel a bit of sadness for this man who had lost so much. He was at a loss as to what to do, he knew that there was no way Kirsten was going to let Jason into the house. After all, he was a hardened criminal. Sandy remembered the trepidation that Kirsten had expressed when he brought Ryan home. But, Sandy knew that he couldn't deny the man the chance to see his son. More importantly, even though he considered Ryan to be his son, he couldn't deny Ryan the opportunity to see his father.

"So, you decided to look us up." Sandy finished.

"Yeah, well I wanted to make sure my boy was okay. I can kind of guess that he is and I can understand if you don't want me here." Jason said, glancing at Sandy.

"No, it's not that. It's just Ryan just got back from Chino and it really seems like he's fitting in here. He's doing really well in school, taking a bunch of AP classes and his guidance counselor thinks he's got a good shot at a college scholarship." Sandy didn't want to go into details about the whole Theresa situation, plus he had a feeling that Jason already knew about it. "I just don't want to upset him, Ryan's future is important to us. But, you're his dad and I'm sure he'd want to see you. Come inside, let me introduce you to my wife and we'll decide how we should bring you being here up to Ryan." Sandy said. He started up the driveway, with his hand on Jason's back, "And call me Sandy."

Sandy opened the door and glanced around looking for the boys, not seeing anyone; he quickly escorted Jason to his office and asked him to wait while he got Kirsten. Heading back out towards the living room where he heard the boys playing video games.

"Take that man! My mom knows the unbeatable combination" Seth said "Mom, you rock at this game. This is obviously where I get my exceptional video game skills."

"Kirsten?" Sandy was shocked to see his wife and Ryan sitting on the floor playing video games while Seth provided commentary from the couch.

"Hey Dad, come check this out, Mom is totally kicking Ryan's ass."

Ryan paused the game and shot Seth a dirty look.

"Seth, don't say ass." Kirsten admonished. She looked up at Sandy and started to explain but Sandy cut her off.

"I need to talk to you in the office." Sandy said.

"It was the press – I knew it. What's Julie Cooper done now?" Kirsten asked, getting up. "Thanks Ryan, this was a bit of a stress reliever." She followed Sandy down the hall.

They started towards Sandy's office as Kirsten talked on about the Newport groups troubles. Sandy quickly stopped and grabbed Kirsten's arm and pulled her into the powder room.

"Sandy, what's going on?" Kirsten asked, clearly perplexed by her husbands odd action.

"Ssshhhh!" Sandy said, lowering his voice he added "Don't freak out, but Ryan's dad is here."

"Here, here? Like in the house, here?" Kirsten asked.

"In my office. Yes. He was recently paroled, and he wanted see Ryan. He's got no other family, Dawn's gone and Trey's in jail. How can we deny him the right to see his son?"

"Easy! Sandy, he's a criminal and we just got Ryan back, we don't want to lose him again. I don't think it's good for Ryan right now." Kirsten argued.

"Listen to me, Kirsten. If Ryan finds out his dad is out, he'll want to see him anyway. If he finds out we kept his father from him, he'll hold it against us. Ryan's a smart kid. He knows that his place is here with us."

As Kirsten and Sandy continued to argue in the powder room, Seth and Ryan sat in the living room playing video games. The phone rang and Seth paused the game to answer it. After a brief conversation, he tossed the phone to Ryan.

"It's Lindsay."

"Hey" Ryan said. He listened intently for a moment. "Okay, calm down, I'll bring you over my notes." He paused. "Yeah, I'll ask the Cohens and I'll head over. Calm down, it'll be okay." He hung up the phone.

"Is she okay?" Seth asked. "She sounded really upset."

"Yeah, she is. She can't find her notes for physics and she's kind of freaking out. I told her I would bring her over a copy of my notes. I'm just going to ask your folks if it's okay if I run over there real quick." Ryan said as he rifled around his back pack looking for his notes.

Seth assumed that his folks were discussing the visitor they had earlier, so he followed Ryan down the hall. "You know it's probably fine if you just take the car. I'll tell them where you went. It's not like they'll think you stole the car or anything."

Ryan turned around and glared at Seth.

"Sorry, man you know what I meant." Seth held up his hands in an apologetic gesture.

Ryan knocked at the door to Sandy's office. He didn't hear any noise inside, so he knocked again and pushed the door open. "Uh, Guys? Can I borrow the car to run over to Lindsay's real quick? I know it's late but…" He stopped as he was face to face with his father.

"Dad?" Ryan asked, clearly confused by the mere idea that his father was standing in Sandy's office.

"Hey, Ry" Jason replied.

As Kirsten and Sandy exited the powder room and found Seth blocking the doorway to Sandy's office.

"Hey guys, look Ryan's dad is here – in your office. With Ryan. Isn't that great?" Seth sarcastically asked as Sandy and Kirsten exchanged shocked look.


End file.
